Posts Tagged With: Canada

I’ve been back in Canada for a little less than a month now and have had some time to decompress and to think about my trip. At first, I thought I hadn’t really changed at all during my travels, but it actually has in a million tiny ways. I’d like to share that with you now:

10. The Journey is the Thing

My trip had no specific goal, other than to relax, enjoy and experience the world that was far away from home. This turned out to a great way to travel and, for me, to not focus on the result, but to really take the journey for what it was – an adventure into the unknown.

9. We are all the Same

I included this in my last list, but I want to say it again. I love people, and the truest realization I had again while I was overseas is that we are all, at our most basic level, very similar. We just want to be happy; to have enough food to eat, a roof over our heads, some people who love us and a purpose in life that brings us joy. I saw all kinds of people living in many different ways as I worked though six countries, but they all have this in common. We are all part of one big human family, and it doesn’t matter where you are from or what you are doing with your life, some things are the same within all of us.

8. Travel is as Easy and as Hard as you Want it To Be

PATIENCE. This one virtue has eluded me my whole life, and nothing cures the need for control than a less than smooth travel experience. I learned about the essence of the journey in my search for patience as I met setbacks and mishaps along the road. I learned how to be more adaptable, to let things slide, and to only care about the most important things along the way.

7. Roll with the Waves

This one is a good follow-up to #8. When I rolled with the upsets along the way, the journey got even more interesting: I saw some things I would otherwise have missed, or had a completely new experiences I wasn’t expecting to have. By saying “Yes!” I got into more trouble, saw more unexpected things, and had more impromptu adventures than if I had stuck to a strict schedule and followed it the whole way along.

6. Pay Attention

I learned that there is beauty in the details. That every city is an intricate mess that somehow works in its own unique way. That the road less traveled sometimes results in a washed out car or monkeys attacking your windshield. To stop and save the kittens, get lost on a bike and get found again, and that fun can be found in every airport, bus station, or boat ride. By paying true attention to my surroundings, I was also able to glimpse into the local life of the people, and have real experiences from the country I was visiting. That, to me, is priceless.

5. Embrace the Inner Hippie

I’m normally a goal-oriented, round the clock, by the book kind of person. To escape that mentality for a while and embrace my inner beach bum was an enlightening experience. I had whole days with no plans and nothing to do, vague ideas of where the day would take me, and days where I just went with the flow. That rarely happens in my “real” life in Canada, and it was refreshing to break out of the bubble of who I think I am and step into the sandals of my inner Hippie Goddess. She is someone I want to know better, and a side of me that I won’t soon forget now that we’ve been re-aquainted!

4. Trust the Kindness of Strangers

In my travels I stayed with family friends, friends of friends, new friends and people I didn’t even know at all. I was welcomed into countless homes with open arms, to people eager to share in my travel journey and get to know me. I feel SO blessed to now have friends from all over the world, and want to thank each and every one of you for your hospitality and help in exploring all these new places 🙂 If you ever travel, and someone recommends that you stay with a friend or you have family/friends to stay with overseas, DO IT! It will completely change your perspective on the country you are visiting, because you get to see it through the eyes of a local. A thousand thank-you’s again to all those who put me up while I was abroad! You are welcome to return the favour here in Canada anytime!

3. Comfort Zones are Boring

I did something new and crazy in every country I went to: Surfing in Indonesia, Parasailing in Philippines, and even Skydiving in New Zealand. Get out of your comfort zone and try some new and crazy stuff. It will enrich your travel experience and add a whole new level of fun. Besides, that’s what travel is for: new experiences and adventures! It doesn’t matter how scared you are – do something wild and crazy! eat that cricket off a Bangkok bug cart! Take the jet boat ride through the canyon! Throw yourself out of a plane! These things are the highlights of my travels as I look back on them now, the times I challenged myself and really went for it.

2. Theres No Place like Home

Canada is an amazing country. I learned this while I was abroad through other travellers stories about my home country, that it is a well-loved place in the world and worth exploring in its own right. Talking about it with others made me realize how much I love being a Canadian and how lucky I am to call this place my home. I never really appreciated it until I left for a long time and realized what a phenomenal place it is.

1. I am SO lucky

The fact that I was able to pull off this trip still boggles my mind. There was so much planning involved – a years worth of time and effort went into it, and now that I’m back I can see what a privileged position I hold as a citizen of Canada. I have enough food to eat, a roof over my head, and friends and family who love and care about me. The rest is just gravy! Upon returning I went to my bathroom and turned on the tap, thinking back to all the times I didn’t have access to fresh water on my travels. Something as simple as turning on the tap can take on new meaning after travelling: it represents all that we take for granted, being from a first world country were every comfort is provided for. I feel that, now, I am able to name how lucky I truly am.

Well. That’s it! I’m sure I will update this blog again in the future as life takes me on more travels, but for now I am happy to have landed back in Canada, ready to take on the world 🙂

The next morning I woke up in my new dorm pretty disoriented, where was I?

Oh yea. In New Zealand, about to fly back to Canada after almost four months of travel!! Weeee! I packed up all my stuff for the last time, after a long hot shower and met some other friends who were staying in the Jailhouse for a hot breakfast and coffee. We had a great time just comparing stories and enjoying each others company before setting off to the airport together, since we all had flights around a similar time. At the airport, I saw a few more friends who had been on the trip, disembarking back to all four corners of the world. I was lucky enough to have my friend Tim on my flight back to Auckland, and we drank wine as we waited for our flight. yum! I love NZ wine!

Back in Auckland I had a few hours to kill, and blogged some more while waiting for the EPIC thirteen hour flight that would bring me back to Canada. In actuality, it didn’t turn out that bad, I had a seat next to me that was empty on the plane, so could stretch out a bit. I watched a few movies and even managed to get some sleep with the help of two more glasses of delicious NZ red.

Vancouver was my last stop on the looong way back to Toronto, and I had two hours to kill in Vancity. I didn’t leave the airport, I should have made one of my Vancouver friends come out and see me and go out somewhere for food in Richmond or something, but was pretty groggy and just wanted to get back to Tdot at that point. Vancouver, I’m coming to see you another time, I promise!

My final flight wasn’t too bad either, I felt kind of rested, there was a seat free in the middle again, and I had bought a new book that was holding my attention. At 12:30 am I finally landed in my hometown. I was the only one with an entourage to greet me as I came out of the luggage area – my whole family was there to welcome me back! It felt so good to get all those hugs and kisses I’d been missing while I was travelling. I even got some beautiful flowers as a welcome home present!

I’m HOME!!!!! Finally! What an incredible journey this summer was. I hope all of you can experience some kind of epic trip like I have. It’s been fantastic to be able to share it with you through this blog.

Melbourne reminds me of Vancouver in a hundred little ways – although there are no mountains, there’s an ocean, the weather changes every five minutes, the people are hip and trendy, the coffee is delicious, there’s a hundred things to do and a great restaurant culture, and a hundred little communities that are worth exploring. I was lucky enough to have a friend who lives in trendy St. Kilda, I went to film school with Torrance and she’s only been in Aus for three months, living the life in Melbourne. She and her flatmates welcomed me into their home (and on their couch) for almost a whole week, I’m super thankful to them for letting me crash with them!

My first evening in Melbourne was pretty laid back, it was super easy to get from the airport to downtown on the SKybus, and then onwards to St.Kilda on the tram, a rail network that links the whole city and makes it super easy to get around. I got into St Kilda with a few hours to spare, so I went down to the beach and put my toes in the water while getting acquainted with this lovely suburb. It comes complete with its own kitschy beachside amusement park, cool cafes and delicious bakeshops. I gorged myself on sushi and grabbed some maps from the local hostel, checking out what to see and do while I am in town. There was so much free stuff to check out!! A plus for me cause I am on a super budget at this point in my trip – three months of travel can really do a number on your bank account!

I met up with Torrance after she was done work and we had a great meal together, catching up on several years of news and stories, we both have had some major moves and good stuff happen to us, along with a couple dozen friends in common, so we needed mucho catch up time! The next day I was off to explore the city, first taking a walk with Torrance through Saint Kilda to an animal sanctuary she is considering volunteering at (complete with cute lil piggy in the yard!) and then boarding the tram for downtown. Now, Torrance had said I could take my chances on not paying for the tram with a little refillable card, since the transit cops hardly ever checked, so i got on the tram without paying. Luck would have it the MY tram on THAT day would get checked as we went downtown, I was almost fined an outrageous $200!! NOOOOOOO!!!!

Luckily I was able to play dumb and prove that I had just gotten there yesterday and played up my Canadian accent (i just got here, eh?) and I got away with it!! The transit cop was NOT happy about letting me go, but he knew and I knew I was NOT going to be paying any ticket, so I was able to get off. Yes!! I was a bit shaken after that, and walked around the CBD aimlessly for a while, gawping at the buildings and the architecture, modern mixed with Victorian. I loved it! I wandered through the pedestrian only Bourke St Mall at all the shopping I couldn’t do (probably for the best as I still have to carry all my stuff on my back) and stumbled upon the Parliament Buildngs and the Cathedral of Saint Paul. I ate lunch in Chinatown (can’t get away from those!) and went up to the Queen Victoria Markets to see the action there (there was none, market was closed. damn.) The downtown of Melbourne is actually pretty small, so I thought I would conquer the ultimate downtown walk and attempt to walk back to St. Kilda via the beach! It took me a while – about two hours – but I needed the exercise and love exploring new places so it was worth it – I only got lost once!

I also saw the Southbank – which is the entertainment area on the bank of the Yarra river across from the city, and the State Library, which impressed me with its bohemian historic feel. I wandered around in there for a while, there were some really good free museum-like floors where the history of Melbourne was laid out and the history of the library as well. I walked and walked and WALKED along the shore, there’s TONS of beachfront and the day was warm, so I didn’t even mind when my feet started hurting as the sun went down!! That night we had a chill dinner at home and hung out with Torrance`s roomie over a bottle of wine. I knew the weekend was going to be messy on account of the Auusie Football League Grand Final, so I wanted to save some energy for that!!

My second day in Melbourne was full of more free adventures. I visited the National Gallery of Victoria (free) and marveled at their Picasso, Matisse and large collection of Southeast Asian Art. I also loved the large-scale art project in the lobby of the gallery with a hundred bowls floating in a shallow pond, making music as they clinked together. I walked up to Federation square, which was packed with footy festivities and revelers, but it started to rain and I ducked into the Cinema museum (my fav!) for an hour while it rained outside. Fed Square is an interesting `main hub`of activity in the CBD, right by the central station and a very vibrant part of downtown. Even though the architecture doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the historic surroundings, it’s an interesting place to visit. I spent all afternoon typing and catching up on emails in a super cute hipstery cafe called Thousand Pound Bend, which is off a little alleyway in Melbourne’s downtown. There’s quite a few little laneways sprinkled throughout the downtown, that hold unmarked bars and cool shops and places to eat, I loved exploring this city!

That night I got a text from Torrance – she would be late cause she found a stray dog and was waiting for animal services to come and pick her up! The dog was extremely cute, large and malnourished so after I paid her a visit I bought us a bottle of wine and headed home to make us some dinner. Torrance and I also found time to redecorate her room and she made me some delicious vegan meals as well! Yum! After some active days, I was ready for a sleep and wanted to me rested up for my awesome weekend!!

I spent my last weekend in Sydney visiting my friend Rachel and her hubby, Brendan in Avoca Beach which is about an hour from Sydney to the North. The train ride out was picturesque, it winds through the countryside and along the bay and it was a nice day so I was able to enjoy the view. My friend Rachel picked me up from the station in Gosford, a little town about 20 minutes from the coast where she lived in North Avoca beach. It`s a gorgeous seaside town, and after I got a driving tour of all the beautiful beaches along the way, I settled into the Swan household for the evening. I was treated to several new Aussie beers beachside at the beer garden, and caught up with my friend over (a great many) drinks and delicious Thai food. We had a blast, I even got to take in some footy and got to listen to some Aussie musicians that I hadn’t heard of before.

The next morning was Rachel’s birthday, so I got to be a guest at her birthday brunch with the whole family! Rachel lived with my family in Canada for a while, and I had forgotten her parents had also visited, so it turned out her family knows my whole family, it was great to chat and hang out with people who knew all about my life in Canada and to experience a taste of beachside life outside of Sydney. After a seaside breakfast at the surf club on Avoca Beach, we hit up the local markets where there were trinkets, antiques, handmade crafts, clothing and food for sale. It was a perfect way to spend a lazy sunny Sunday, and I bought some gifts and even a few trinkets for myself! I loved the beachy atmosphere of the town, it was super friendly and reminded me of some of the summer neighborhood markets we have back home in Toronto.

After the markets we had a “sausage sizzle” with Snags (sausages) and Rissoles (home-made hamburger patties) and I sampled some good Australian beer (on fifty lashes, coopers ale) on the front deck of the Swan household, and then was treated to a scenic drive of the surrounding area, including a visit to the beach where Rachel and Brendan had gotten married six months earlier, and a stop of ice cream as well. The surrounding ares is gorgeous, national parks are all over the place, and it seems like a great family community so close to the city. I’m glad I’ve been able to get out of the city so much while I’m in Sydney and into the surrounding countryside, it’s very different from the rest of Australia, and stunningly gorgeous! I feel pretty lucky to have so many friends in this country – I think I will be back to take advantage of this country sooner than later, there so much that I missed, and more that I want to see!

After a sunny afternoon train ride back to the city, I was ready for my next adventure – a week-long trip to Melbourne, to catch up with some more Aussie and Canadian friends. My plane ride was pretty uneventful as far as rides go, only an hour and a half to get there. I ditched my big backpack for the week so it was fast and painless – I didn’t even have to wait for my luggage!

My last week in Sydney was a perfect mix of downtime and sightseeing. I’ve tried to save my money for Melbourne and New Zealand, so I took it easy for a few days and caught up on my emails, registered for school when I’m back in Canada and caught up with some friends and family as well. I did have some outings, though, and made the best of my time left in Sydney. One day trip brought me back to Chinatown and Darling Harbor, where I thought I might go to the Aquarium but then cheaped out when I saw how much it was! 40 bucks? No thank you – that’s my daily budget!

I started my day in Chinatown where I was on a mission to do some cheap souvenir shopping at Paddy’s Markets, a bargain type of mall where there were tons of stalls selling cheap souvenirs and useless crap. I love useless crap! But I refrained from buying too much stuff cause of course I have to carry it all on my back. It’s a good deterrent from spending too much. After checking out Chinatown ( I think I’ve been to about a hundred Chinatowns on this trip) I went down to Darling Harbor, which was gorgeous in the daytime as well. I walked all along the harbor, checked out the tall ships around the Naval Museum and walked all along the Cockle Bay Wharf, with its trendy shops and restaurants catering to the hundreds of tourists milling around. I had sticker shock at the aquarium after that, and decided to go instead to the Queen Victoria Building, which I had stumbled upon the other day and wanted to check out in more detail. The QVB is actually a part of downtown Sydney called the Strand Arcade, a gorgeous stretch of Victorian buildings (now more populated with office buildings and suits) where you can wander and gawp at all the buildings. But the obvious centrepiece is this gorgeous “mall” (I use that word lightly as it looks NOTHING like any mall you’ve seen, its super swank) with beautiful columns, staircases and very expensive shops and cafes all catering to Sydney’s business élite and upscale shoppers. I had a way overpriced coffee and some delicious macaroons while people watching and had a great afternoon just browsing and window shopping. Yay!

I also took a day trip to Manly Beach, you have to catch the ferry there from Circular Quay, and the harbor views are unmissable. I took tons of pics of the opera house and the Harbor as we passed. I got to Manly kind of late and only got an hour or two of rays, but it was fun to walk around and see both sides of the beach, I wish I had time to do some of the coastal walks around the area, but it was getting dark/cold and I needed to get back on the ferry to watch the epic sunset over the harbor on the boat! It was my last beach day for a while, as Melbourne is not going to be very warm and I’m not expecting New Zealand to be either, so it made me super sad as my fabulous tan is fading. I worked so hard on it all summer!! WHYYYYYYY. I know, I’m so hard done by. Ha ha ha.

cant get enough!

Manly Beach

Manly Beach

on the ferry

on the ferry

Queen Victoria Building

Queen Victoria Building

Queen Victoria Building

Harbor

more Opera House Views

Manly Beach

sunset views

Queen Victoria Building

Queen Victoria Building

Queen Victoria Building

Cockle Bay Wharf

tall ships @ Naval Museum

Lighthouse

View of CBD from Darling Harbor

Sweet climbing gym

Tall ships @ naval museum

founatin at Darling Harbor

Inside Chinatown

Paddys Markets

One more fun thing I did this week was drop in on a house party with David and his friends, I met a ton of great people and partied the night away. I’m loving the laid back Aussie lifestyle, it’s so easy to get into the swing of things here, I think if I wasnt starting to miss home I might consider setting myself up in Sydney for a while!

I wasnt sure what to expect from the Blue Mountains, which is only about an hour outside of Sydney and a huge tourist attraction for both locals and visitors alike. We drove up through windy roads, and even though the mountains are not anything like what we have in Canada (spoiled!), they were still pretty majestic. Our first stop was Flinders Lookout, where you could see how these hills got their name. Apparently the eucalyptus trees give off a certain chemical into the air that gives the surroundings a blue haze-like appearance, you can see in my pictures in some places it looks quite thick. You cant see it up close, but you can smell the amazing eucalypt trees – it was great to be out of the city and into the wilderness for a couple of days! We climbed down to see the falls – there are hundreds of little and big waterfalls in the area – and soon realized it would be a climb-y kind of day – I think I conquered about a thousand steps!

The next stop was Katoomba, to see the famous Three Sisters. These rock formations are the subject of many myths, as they look like three maidens emerging from the rock face. They really are stunning, there were TONS of tourists taking pics and enjoying the sights. Me and Dave looked around Katoomba a bit before settling into our hotel in nearby Leura, where I dragged David into every touristy shop in sight. We also took a trip to the scenic lookout by our hotel for some more spectacular views of the mountains and some hair-raising heights! It was movie night at the hotel that night so we watched a couple flicks and drank some more delicious Hunter Valley wine that we had brought.

The next day we drove back the long way around the mountains so I could take in the spectacular views and see a few more sights, like Govetts leap and a few more waterfalls. I think one of the best parts of our weekend was when I got to go to a “Sausage Sizzle” at David’s family’s house! It was so fun to meet his fam, and see how Aussie life happens outside of the touristy areas. They had two big ol dogs and a gorgeous pool and garden. Dinner was delicious, and i had an authentic Australian beer to go with it! It was a seriously good weekend – one I wont forget! the Blue Mountains were totally iconic, if not a little kitschy as a tourist attraction, still it was worth the trip to experience them.

Our journey to Hunter Valley (or “huntah” depending on what side of the equator you are from) started with a beautiful scenic drive north away from the city, through the country for about two hours until we reached our destination, the Brimbadeen Estate, a local winery that had cabins built into the hillside for incredible views in our little cosy cottage. The hosts were lovely, bringing us welcome baskets and wine with goodies we could sample while we stayed with them. Cute! We checked out the surrounding countryside that night, and I was treated to the finer points of a “footie” match, Aussie rugby is one mean sport! We also got caught up with our election news, there is a big federal election going on here in Australia right now, and its pretty entertaining to watch how different Aussie Politics are both in the election and in the sports game we were watching! The next day we got an early start on planning our route of wine destruction.

First stop was Iron Gate estate, a winery I had never heard of but that David was familiar with. Oh my god did they ever let us sample the whole place! We must have had ten tastings at the first place alone! I laughed while thinking “We’re not in Canada anymore” because we didn’t even have to pay for our tastings, nothing in the entire day! It’s enough to make someone guilty enough to buy a couple of bottles of wine! Our next stop was my pick, I’ve always been a fan of Lindemann’s, so made it a priority to stop there, where we sampled yet another few wines and I hit the jackpot with a ten-dollar bottle barrel of wine, which I picked through and made some excellent purchases! We needed lunch at that point, and there is a gorgeous café just off the cellar doors of the winery, so we ate gourmet pizza and drank yet more excellent wine.

The boozy afternoon was not done yet, as we still had a cheese shop to check out (yummy but expensive) and another brewery, AND another winery! The brewery was a super fun place to visit, very historic, we got the ever-sophisticated “beer flights” and I sampled ginger beah, wheat beah, and a few other delicious choices! Mmmm. Beer.

Beer Prayer

Beer Flights

Valley View

The view of the Valley

I’ll take one barrel

Yum yum yum

Brewery tour

grape growin

Bigass Spidah

Nice view!

soon to be wine

mmm pizza

too much wine!

All of the wine

The View of the Valley

excited about my purchases

the view from our cabin

Toronto Bound!

The last stop was De Bertolli wines, where I couldn’t resist but pick up another very cheap bottle of delicious wine – I’m hooked! We decided to have a wine party, complete with meats and cheeses, while we watched the election results (lol) so we headed to the supermarket and laid out elaborate cheesy dinner plans to go with our copious amounts of wine. It was a fantastic day, I really got a sense of what Hunter Valley had to offer and was able to sample and buy some of the best wines coming out of the country, i feel pretty spoiled by my experience there with an incredible view and excellent company. The credit has to go to David for this trip, he planned it all out and it was fun b/c he’d never been there either despite being so close to it, like the Niagara region for us Canadians! Thanks David for taking me exploring in your country, I’m loving ‘straya’ more and more every day I stay here 🙂

My two night-three day trip on Fraser Island will definitely be included in the highlights of my trip to Australia – It was such an adventure! Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island, and held in place by the rainforest that eventually grew on top of that sand. It’s a unique natural formation and worth checking out if going up North on the east coast of Aus! I did the tour which included giant 4WD buses, glad that option was included in my pass because there are other tours where you drive the vehicles, and although it looked like fun, they often got stuck in the soft sand. You need 4WD vehicles on Fraser Island because there are no paved roads, only sand roads and original logging trails. The “highway” is the beach area, and on the highway you have to dodge fishermen, rocks and the occasional sunken ship 😉

I was picked up at Rainbow beach on a HUGE 4 wheel drive bus, and after doing our rounds we drove right off the road onto a barge, for the short ferry ride to the island. Our first stop was morning tea (cute!) and then a trip to Lake Mackenzie, where we would be picked up by the rest of our group to carry on with the trip. The lake was perfect, formed by rainwater, made your hair soft, the sand ex-foliates your skin, not a bad first stop! We met the rest of our group at lunch, and set off for a rainforest hike through Fraser island, to an area once called central station because of the logging activity there in the past. We learned about the ecosystem of the island, and did another short hike back to the bus. The bus ride itself was worth mentioning, as it is the BUMPIEST ride I have had yet, kind of like an amusement park ride, bouncing along through the forest on this giant sand island.

We were driven (bumped) back to our resort, called Kingfisher Bay, in time to watch the sun set over the jetty, and to have a delicious dinner. I had a box of goon (gross wine) to get into, but after a few glasses i decided to go to bed. Other tour members were Aussie, German, American, British and Kiwi, a good mix of people! We had to get up early the next day and be on the bus by 8am to check out the giant Stonetool Sandblow, which is basically a mountain of sand, and the pinnacles colored sands, which were giant outcroppings of these sand blows that had all different colors of sand contained in them. We also visited the Maheno wreck, a ruined ship that had washed up on the shores of the island and was used as target practice during WW2. It was cool! My favorite part of the day was when we visited Indian Heads and the Champagne Pools on the far side of the island, with spectacular views and a chance to swim in the ocean without being afraid of the jellyfish! The last attraction on our list was Eli creek, an incredibly clear freshwater creek that we could tube down and relax in the sand, right by the crashing waves of the ocean! it was awesome!

The second night there was another good dinner and lots of drinking games which allowed me to finish my goon which gave me a wicked hangover on a jolty bus 😦 not my best idea. Ugh. Our third way we visited two more lakes, Birrabeen and Lake Wabby for some refreshing swim time, and finished up partway through the day so we could make the 5 o clock ferry off the island and back to the mainland, arriving this time at Hervey Bay on the other side of the island. Cool Dingo Tours took very good care of me, and I met some cool people who were fellow travelers and adventurers. I feel like I learned a lot about the history and heritage of the island, and was able to do some relaxing in between the bumpy bus rides!

I was about to get on another bus, though, for an epic sixteen hour journey! My Greyhound awaits!

My time in Asia is at a close, I’ve landed in Australia and said goodbye to SE Asia for now. What a difference! Everyone speaks my language, the toilets all have paper in them, and everything is twice the price. Did I mention it’s incredibly gorgeous as well? The flight here was uneventful, I had three seats to myself for the seven hour journey, and managed to nap most of the way, since my sleep was interrupted last night by a very loud Aussie woman (go figure) in Kuala Lumpur. When I woke up this morning I was sure to bang my stuff around a lot as she did at 3:30 am when she came in from the bar, exclaiming loudly to no-one in particular that she was “absolutely pissed!!” Lol.

I landed around 9pm local time, collected my bag, and was promptly searched thoroughly by customs, swabbed for drugs and had my emails examined as the surly Aussie lady I was dealing with was convinced I was running drugs into her country. All she found was my pile of sweaty clothes, however, and she seemed almost disappointed when wishing me a pleasant stay in Australia. I thought I was headed for a cavity search! I guess I just look too suspiciously goddamned innocent ;-P I found out I had just missed the last bus into the town and the information lady informed me it would be “not much” for a taxi to my hostel, only $20. Gulp.

It ended up being about $17, but my driver gave me a much better welcome to Aus, even turning off the meter at one point and detouring around the coast to show me Danger Bay and the nighttime view from the lookout. He dropped me at my new hostel, Kommune, where I paid a wallet-shattering $25 a night for my two nights there. Remember, I’m used to $5 a night!! There was a party going on in the main room, but I didn’t join in as I was super tired from all my travel and figured I would see the sights the next day. Turns out there is nothing really to see in Coolangatta besides the beach. I woke up late the next day and walked around the little town, quickly realizing I was in a Florida-like retirement community mixed with a smattering of young people with babies. Hmm. Boring! I walked around Danger Bay, which was not dangerous (lol) but had gorgeous views up and down the coast. I stopped at the beach for a bit while the sun was still hot-ish, and walked and walked and WALKED down the never-ending beach for lack of something better to do. I walked all the way to Kirra Beach and found it more boring and quiet than the last beach, so I just admitted defeat, bought an overpriced organic peach iced tea from the local seven eleven (the Australian equivalent of a Southeast Asian temple; throw a stone and you’ll hit one) and walked back. I decided to treat myself to some Indian food, and paid way too much for some admittedly delicious butter chicken.

There was NOTHING going on in the hostel besides three of us sitting in the lobby using the wifi, so I decided to but my losses and take my tired legs to bed. Surfers Paradise is my next stop, and it’s sure to be much more entertaining than Coolangatta. Please? Australia? Hello?

Our time in Langkawi was equally split between eating delicious food, lazing on the beach and shopping our butts off. We woke up on our first full day on the island and were disappointed that it was kind of cloudy out. No matter, we had an island hopping tour booked at 2pm and decided to head to the beach anyways – as it promptly started raining. Poop. We took shelter at what would become our favorite beachy place, outside the fancy Casa Del Mar resort, and watched the rain. It let up in time for us to grab some lunch and snacks and be herded onto a bus to the jetty to catch our boat. it was us, four girls from Syria and a whole lotta Malaysian Muslims! Our first stop was to the lake of the Pregnant Maiden, a freshwater lake on an island nearby that was gorgeous! It reminded Micheline and I of our cottages back home and we laughed as some of the other tourists took what looked like their first swim, life jackets and all!

The second stop was cool but not to my taste, since eagle-feeding sounds all majestic and awesome but is actually taming these gorgeous animals and making them dependent on the food we give them. It was interesting to see such a large eagle colony and of course to see them swooping down to grab the food, but made me sad since this is not a responsible thing to do. The garbage at the tourist sites in Malaysia disappoint me quite a bit as well – if you have been given the gift of Paradise, do you seriously want to ruin it with pop cans and candy wrappers! Smarten up, Malaysia!!

We stopped at a third island as well, for more beachy fun. We wanted to snorkel but our conversation with the water sports guys went like this: “Is there anything for us to see” Snorkel guy: “um, no. really clear water.” us: “ok. pass.” We laid on the beach and befriended some other girls who turned out to be from Canada as well (french side) and I got to hear a bit about their travels in Australia, my next destination. The weather ended up being great for the rest of the day and we loved just boating around the various small islands. Not bad for 25 ringgits! about 9 dollars. After chilling at the hostel for a bit, we shopped in the evening, I picked up some souvenirs for friends and family and bought cheap beers to drink on the beach since there was, once again, NO party to speak of on the beach or otherwise. We snuck through an amazing resort on our way home, the Frangipani, and were amazed by how the other half lives – winding pools, private water park, and gorgeous villas. Someday!!